Why NPP Elections Committee turned down Mpiani’s offer

Any organization worldwide that refuses an offer might have done that with a very good reason.

This is the situation that the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) finds itself, in the build-up to the election of National Executives in Tamale.

The party turned down two (2) offers by leading members to print free of charge, the accreditation cards for the Tamale congress.

The first offer was made by the former Chief of Staff under the John Kufuor administration, Mr. Kwadwo Okyere Mpiani through Mr. Osei Ameyaw, for the printing of accreditation cards for use in Tamale.

The second offer, also declined by the National Election Committee (NEC) was said to have been rejected because the person who made the offer had endorsed the nomination form for one of the contestants.

The reason was that, the party had decided to treat the printing of accreditation cards as a security issue because of a very ugly incident that cropped up during the National Delegates conference of the party in 2010 in Kumasi.

The printing of the accreditation cards became a subject of security because “the current GS was found in the company of others printing fake accreditation IDs by Hon. Yaw Osafo Maafo in a hotel, in Kumasi.

These fake cards were intended to be used to ferry a huge number of non-delegates into the stadium. As a result of this, the NEC decided to subject the accreditation cards for the 2014 conference to very strict scrutiny."

All the preceding paragraphs in this story are from a 7-paged response of the embattled Director of Finance and Administration of the NPP, Hon. Kwadjo Opare-Hammond, to the allegations made by Mr. Paul Afoko and Kwabena Agyei Agyepong, current National Chairman and General Secretary respectively.

The petition also revealed that Mr. Kwadwo Mpiani and the other gentleman who had offered to print the accreditation cards for free, refused to donate towards the printing of the cards when they were contacted.

“NEC requested these two gentlemen to donate the funds they were going to spend in printing the cards but they both refused. After a very serious scrutiny and many negotiations by the eminent persons of the NEC, the contract was awarded to a company to print 8,000 cards at a cost of Ghc13,000," the petition states in part.

On the allegation that a company affiliated to Hon. Opare-Hammond was fraudulently awarded the contract to print the cards, this was denied in the seven (7) page petition addressed to the Chairman of the NPP National Council of Elders and copied all national council members, all steering committee members, all national executive committee members and to all NPP Members of Parliament.

“My affiliation with the company was disclosed and known to the NEC and was considered by the NEC before the award of the contract at a ridiculously low price of Ghc1.60 per card. Before the final decision was taken as to which company to award the contract to, Mr. Kwabena Sarpong contacted another company, who said they couldn’t print at that cost.

In fact, the owner of that company added that no one could execute the contract at that ridiculously low price. (Note: The party membership card which is made of the same material is sold to members at Ghc5.00).

The company decided to do this business at a loss as its form of modest contribution to the building of the party towards victory 2016. It is obvious that no benefit accrued to me from the performance of the contract. Therefore, a conflict of interest issue cannot arise," Hon. Opare-Hammond stated in his petition.

In a similar situation, the National Executive Committee was not happy about the conduct of Mr. Osei Ameyaw following the unpleasant situation he placed the party in during preparations for the April National Delegates conference in Tamale.

Completely scandalized by the attitude of Mr. Osei Ameyaw, the committee was left with no other option than to refer to the personality mentioned above, as dishonorable.

Contained in a report by the NPP NEC on the Tamale congress, it was ask whether Mr. Osei Ameyaw could be trusted following how he reneged on a promise he had made to print some T-shirts for use by both National and Local Committee members free of charge.

Under the heading: “Accreditation For Delegates And Observers," thus report number 8 (b) it was stated that “in the case of free donation of T-shirts for officials of the Committee, Hon. Osei Ameyaw promised to produce the T-shirts free of charge. All attempts, however, to collect the T-shirts from him for distribution to the officials (both National and Local Committee members) seven days up to the eve of the elections failed, and this led to a very serious confrontation between Hon. Osei Ameyaw and Mr. Kwabena Sarpong on the morning of 12th April 2014."

The report revealed that, “as a result of the confrontation, Brig. Odei succeeded [in] collecting ten T-shirts, but the most interesting fact was that most of the sizes (XXL, XL, M) were later found not good enough for school children; and as a result, most of the officials who got the T-shirts could not wear them."

It continues that, “in addition, what shocked the Committee members was that at the Stadium so many people were found wearing “Official T-shirts” and when confronted they said they were either given to them by Mr. Osei Ameyaw or Mr. Paul Afoko. Mr. Osei Ameyaw owes the Committee an explanation for his conduct, which for all intents and purposes, was dishonorable."

From the above-stated damning revelations, the questions many are asking is whether the NPP has become the warren of people that cannot be trusted.

Readers should stay tune for updates on Hon. Opare-Hammond’s petition.